1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to liquid ejecting apparatuses.
2. Related Art
Ink jet recording apparatuses, in which an ejecting head and cartridges are disposed in a carriage that makes scans above a recording medium and a desired printing process is performed by ejecting ink (a liquid) supplied from the cartridges onto the recording medium from the ejecting head (recording head), are known as liquid ejecting apparatuses that have been used in the past. A connection method that employs ink supply pins is known as a technique for connecting the ejecting head and the cartridges in such an ink jet recording apparatus (for example, see JP-A-2002-200772).
Incidentally, rather than mounting cartridges on the carriage, it is also conceivable to employ a method in which a connector is mounted on the carriage and connected to an external tank disposed outside of the recording apparatus via a flexible supply channel, and ink is supplied to the ejecting head from the external tank by connecting the connector to ink supply pins in the ejecting head.
With the connection method that employs ink supply pins such as that described above, it is necessary to dispose a filter, for collecting foreign objects and the like entering from the exterior, within an ink flow channel in the ejecting head. It is necessary to ensure a certain amount of surface area for the filter in order to reduce pressure loss occurring when the ink passes through the filter, and is therefore necessary to perform maintenance operations, such as suction operations or the like for discharging bubbles produced at a widened ink channel formed above the filter between the ink supply pin and the filter.
In the type of ink jet recording apparatus where the cartridges are mounted on the carriage, the maintenance operations for discharging bubbles produced at the widened ink channel are normally carried out automatically when the cartridges are replaced (this will be referred to as “replacement cleaning”).
However, in the case of employing the aforementioned method in which a connector is mounted in the ink jet recording apparatus instead of cartridges and the ink is supplied to the ejecting head from an external tank, the connector is never replaced after being mounted; accordingly, there is a problem in that the replacement cleaning is not executed automatically, and thus ejection problems and the like caused by bubbles being produced at the widened ink channel are not ameliorated.
What is needed, therefore, is a new technique that enables favorable ink ejection properties to be achieved even in the case of employing a method in which a connector is mounted on a carriage instead of cartridges being mounted on the carriage and ink is supplied to an ejecting head from an external tank.